Bashankaev says drones have complicated casualty evacuation

Badma Bashankaev, first deputy chair of the State Duma's health protection committee, said drones had made casualty evacuation more difficult. RIA Novosti reported his assessment of changes in military medicine on October 8, citing NEWS.ru.

In the interview, he said it was no longer always possible to drive up to a wounded person, collect them and immediately take them to hospital. He described evacuation as a complex task requiring consideration of both medical and military circumstances.

Bashankaev said the changes affected the entire sequence of care: first aid, stabilisation, transport, surgery and rehabilitation. He stressed the importance of getting patients to a surgeon in time.

In his assessment, doctors can save the overwhelming majority of wounded patients who reach hospitals when evacuation is timely. He also said Russian experience was being studied abroad. However, he warned that the changing nature of combat required medicine to keep adapting.